


Something Borrowed

by lizimajig



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Ben Solo is reluctant friend to Poe Dameron, Ben has no use for marriage, Divorced parents, Drinking, F/M, Fighting, HEA, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Let's Go to the Movies Challenge, New York City, No Pregnancy, Rating might change if I feel frisky, Rey likes to feel loved and chosen, Reylo - Freeform, Safe to read if you are triggered by pregnancy, The 27 Dresses AU that one person asked for, Weddings, Yeah they're pretty wounded but we're gonna fix that, are we human or are we dancer, lonely people
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-19
Updated: 2020-08-19
Packaged: 2021-03-06 04:07:27
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,741
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25997239
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lizimajig/pseuds/lizimajig
Summary: Rey Johnson is happy  -- happy to help her friends get married. She loves being part of the fun and plans, but all this masks a very deep hurt. When her best friend becomes engaged to his girlfriend, it turns her upside down and inside out.Cynical journalist looking for a leg up Ben Solo's curiosity is piqued when he notices a bridesmaid disappearing and reappearing over the course of an evening at a friend's wedding. The more he digs the more interesting she becomes.A "27 Dresses" AU for the Reylo Readers & Writer's Let's Go to the Movies Challenge.
Relationships: Finn/Rose Tico, Kaydel Ko Connix/Poe Dameron, Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Comments: 2
Kudos: 6
Collections: Let's Go to the Movies - Reylo Readers & Writers Prompt Exchange





	Something Borrowed

**Author's Note:**

  * For [kylorithic](https://archiveofourown.org/users/kylorithic/gifts).



> Hi guys. Hope you all enjoy, especially kylorithic. 👀 
> 
> If there's something you'd like me to tag please let me know. I am human and I make mistakes and miss things.

Rey knew that when Finn started seeing Rose, it would be a matter of when he proposed, not if. She wasn't sure how she knew, beyond that he's her very best friend in the world and she thought she'd seen all his looks. But she'd never seen him look at anyone the way he looked at Rose. And she has grown to love Rose, too -- Rose is sweet but tough, and she loves to laugh. Her family is all the same way and opened their arms to welcome Finn as well as Rey into the family. Most importantly, she loves Finn the way he deserved to be loved. 

Then why did she feel like shit?

Rey Johnson, infamous for loving weddings, bridesmaid extraordinaire, felt like shit that her best friends were getting married and felt like shit because she felt like shit. She should be happy. And she was, but she wasn't. She felt like the worst friend in the history of friends as she slipped out of Central Park at 72nd Street just where Strawberry Fields sat and wandered down 8th Avenue. 

The sun was setting, throwing long shadows across the avenue as she meandered south, avoiding people. Dogwalkers, business women striding to the subway in mismatched business wear and sneakers, men on their phones with messenger bags thrown over their shoulder-- 

The idea struck her as suddenly as though she'd stepped in front of a taxi cab, but before she could stop herself she pulled her phone from her bag, looked for _Ben Solo_ in her recent contacts, and dialed. Before she could come to her senses and hang up, he answered, "Hello?"

Fuck. "Hi," she replied automatically, with cheer she didn't feel. "Um. Sorry. This is Rey Johnson." 

"Good, if you weren't Rey Johnson I would have to ask what you've done with her and why you are calling from her phone." There was a hint of a joke in his tone, and it was enough to make her smile a little. "What's up?"

"I, um-- nothing much. I was just wondering if you were busy," she said. 

"Not in the least, just managing to leave work," he said. Leaving work at -- Rey looked at her watch -- almost 7:30 on a Friday night? Maybe his writing, as she'd imagined when they were introduced, was more than a creative hobby. Or maybe she was right and he was a lowly temp, toiling in a soulless office while shopping his masterpiece from publisher to publisher--

"Rey? Are you still there?" He sounded a little uncertain.

"Yes! Yes, I'm here," she responded, mentally slapping herself a little. "Sorry, just got distracted a minute -- do you want to get a drink?" she asked, getting to the point. "It's just… it's been a long week and I'm in a shitty mood--"

"And you thought of me? I'm flattered."

"That's not what I meant!" she protested, struggling for a way to rephrase. "I just… need someone and my usual person is…" _Busy celebrating his engagement to the love of his life._ "… busy."

"You're really selling me on this drinks thing." His tone was wry, but his usual joking tone was in there. The kind of tone a man develops from never having to take anything serious in his life. Rey usually found it annoying, but from him it was almost endearing.

"Do you want to get a drink or not?" she said, trying not to sigh. 

"Did I not say? Yeah," he replied, and this time she did roll her eyes. "Where are you?"

Rey began to cast around for a street sign but doesn't even need to do that. She could see the telltale roundabout of Columbus Circle while looking in front of her. "I'm almost at Columbus Circle," she said.

"Perfect. Hop on the A-C-E and get off at Washington Square Park, I'll meet you there," he replied.

"I know how to get to Washington Square Park, asshole," she replied wearily. "If you're taking me to an NYU bar, I'll murder you and toss you in the river," she warned him.

"Now what kind of classless asshole would that make me?" he asked rhetorically, and Rey could almost hear the cheeky grin, tossing her own words back at her. "See you in a few," he added, and hangs up before she could answer.

\---

Rey cursed her impulsive invitation the whole way downtown but couldn't bring herself to be too mad about it once she spotted Ben Solo waiting for her on one of the benches that lined the walkways of the park. She's only a warm-blooded woman with more than a couple working brain cells, no one with that much going for them would say Ben Solo was anything but tall, dark, and handsome. Pity his mouth tended to ruin the picture.

True to his word, it is not an NYU dive bar that they head for, but a classy piano bar, a step or two above somewhere she would go with Finn. It was crowded enough that no one was going to take notice of them, yet not so crowded that Rey felt like the walls were closing in on her. Truthfully, it's far nicer than she expected or is even dressed for, but he reassured her not to worry about it. So, fuck it. She decided to take it to heart and settled with him at the bar. 

"You know, I only called you a classless asshole because you read my planner," she informed him, unsure of why that's important to get straight, but felt like it should go on the record.

"Fair enough," he replied, with a bit of a laugh. "Did you make all your appointments this week?"

"No thanks to you," she grumbled, as their Jack and Coke (hers) and whiskey neat (his) are set down in front of them. "Who rips an entire week out of someone else's planner? If the dentist didn't give confirmation calls I would have been shit out of luck."

"You know, they're doing amazing things with technology these days," he teased her. "Google Calendar will keep that all in order for you and bother you as many times as you tell it to in order to remind you about something."

"I know about Google Calendar, I'm not an idiot," she retorted, sipping her drink.

"I didn't say that you were."

"I _like_ having a planner," she replied. Also, her first smart phone had only been a few years ago once she got out of college and a real, adult job but he didn't need to know that. Since she was sixteen, a paper planner had kept her in fine order and would continue to work fine, thank you very much. "Besides, people can hack your Google accounts."

"They can also find your planner when you leave it behind in the back of an Uber you're sharing," Ben replied, smirking a little. 

Her cheeks pinkened. "Fair enough," she said.

They were silent for a moment, but it's not a burdensome silence that she felt like she had to break. It was companionable, though she knew it would break soon enough. "So, how does one manage being in two weddings in one night?" he asked her. 

She grimaced. This isn't the first time in their short acquaintance he'd asked her. "Carefully."

"I mean, you're clearly insane," he added as though she hadn't said anything at all. "Only an insane person would be a bridesmaid in two weddings that are happening at the same time."

"I like weddings," she explained shortly. "Kaydel is a really good friend, and so is Jess." 

"But they must not know each other," he posited.

"You're a regular Sherlock Holmes," she snorted. "No, they don't. Kaydel was my roommate at college for a while and I work with Jess." And, before he could turn it back to more questions: "How do you know Kay?"

"I don't, not really. I was there for Poe," he said. "We… basically grew up together."

"Aw. That's sweet," she said, a smile tugging at her lips. 

"Well. My mother strongly encouraged me to accompany her," he clarified.

"That's also sweet, so I don't know what you think you're accomplishing here," Rey joked. 

"Trying to change your 'classless asshole' appraisal of me. Is it working?" He looked at her with a vague sort of smile that made her stomach twist.

"We're getting there," she admitted. Is this flirting? If it was, he doesn't seem to think she was doing it wrong, which was something of a relief. 

"Anyway, you didn't answer my question," he added.

One of her eyebrows quirked upward. "You asked how I did two weddings in one night, and I said, 'Carefully.' That's an answer."

"That's a deflective answer."

"It's the truth," she said with a shrug, as if she weren't bothered by the questioning.

"Furthermore, I couldn't help but noticed that you've been in four weddings this year so far, and it looked like you had three more scheduled for the fall?" he asked.

She could feel herself freezing, a wall going up to protect herself. "So?"

"Rey. It's barely June."

"Spring and summer are the most popular times to get married, ask anyone," she shot back, going for 'calm' and landing on 'only a little unhinged.'

"Rey--"

"I like weddings!" she said, letting it burst out of her. "Besides, it's an honor -- a goddamn honor -- for someone to come to you and say, 'Will you stand beside me on one of the most important days of my life?' You don't ask strangers to do that. You want the people you love with you, people who are important to you, people you know have your back--" 

"Hey." Ben stopped her with a hand on her arm, enough of a shock to cut her off. "I'm not judging," he said.

"Feels a little bit like you _are,_ " she countered, and takes a long drink to give her time to think. 

"Well, I'm not," he replied, a bit tightly. "I mean, a wedding is a party, and who doesn't like a party? If you're lucky, the food's good, the speeches are short, and the bar is open." 

"That's not what a wedding is." She was mildly horrified that those seem to be the highlights. Then again, he was a guy, if not an unusually observant one. She supposed that didn't mean he couldn't be stereotypical in some other ways. "You-- you're having the party because you're promising yourself to someone else forever. It's a symbol of-- love, and devotion and-- why would you _not_ , if there was someone you loved like that and loved you, too?" 

If he found how worked up she'd become strange, he didn't comment on it, which is just as well since she couldn't say why she has worked herself up into a snit just now. Not because she didn't know, but because it's really none of an almost perfect stranger's business. "Well. I've never met anyone I'd be willing to bet half my stuff to that they'll love me forever, but about fifty percent of people can't seem to get it to work for them--"

"Oh, divorce statistics are a load of crap--" she interrupted.

"Numbers don't lie," he put in.

"Numbers don't, but people do and they use numbers to do it all the time," she said. "I mean. It's not really lying, I don't think, misleading's the better word. The divorce rate has gone down over the last several years, but then, so has the marriage rate--"

"Wouldn't know it to look at your planner," he replied, and she turned to glare at him. The smile she got in return is teasing and shows her he doesn't mean anything malicious by it. Her cheeks pinkened again, and she quickly glanced away before she can show him her own smile. This was a strange sort of acquaintanceship they were building; she didn't think she's ever had one quite like it. She and Finn teased each other relentlessly, but it wasn't like that in the beginning.

"Anyway," she finally said, her eyes on her hands where they lightly circle her glass. 

"That's it?" he asked. "You were really getting me going with statistics."

"You don’t have to make fun." She wrinkled her nose.

"One more." He was still teasing, but it's in a way that makes her want to answer in kind. He's leaned into her, a little bit closer; close enough that she can smell whatever cologne or aftershave he put on that morning, faded a little after the long day. God, it smelled _amazing_ , she could steal his jacket and wrap herself up in it and never give it back. "Please?" he goaded her a little more.

One corner of her mouth twitched upward. "People who marry multiple times are increasingly likely to get divorced with each subsequent marriage. So really, there's a certain percentage of people who are just getting divorced over and over."

"Yes!" Ben cheered, although his reply is notably dry and less teasing now. "Alimony for everyone."

Rey rolled her eyes. "All right, calm down. You know nobody actually likes the cynical guy with a smart ass reply for everything?"

"I don't tend to worry about whether people like me or not," he answered, finishing his whiskey and motioning to the bartender for another. "Saves me a lot of trouble when they don't."

She frowned; this was the second time he's put himself down like that and she wondered if he'd even noticed. "You shouldn't say those things about yourself."

If he heard her, he gave no indication that this was the case. "So why's your day shitty?" he asked instead.

"Huh?"

"Why is your day shitty," he repeated, a little more slowly. "You called me, said you'd had a bad day. So why's that?"

Oh. Right. The sick feeling returned to the pit of her stomach with a vengeance, making her feel worse than before. And right now the last thing she wanted to do is try to sort out her feelings to _Ben Solo_ of all people, who had not proven himself particularly skilled in the realm of empathy. "It's… kind of complicated."

"I'm very smart. Try me."

"And modest, too," she replied brittlely. She was still unsure about giving him insight into the tangle of emotions she was experiencing, but it also wants to come out. "Did you meet Finn at the wedding?" she started instead.

"I did, and the girlfriend. Rosa?" He tried to remember, and corrected himself, "No, Rose." 

"Yes, Rose." Her hands looked for something to do, and began tearing the damp napkin that came under her drink into shreds. "Well… they're engaged now."

He waited for her to continue, but finally spoke when she offered nothing else. "Okay," he said slowly. "Well. Not my first choice but good for them, I guess. What's the shitty part?"

The shitty part was the part that she couldn’t quite articulate, and her cheeks were growing warmer with each second that passed. "Finn's been my best friend since we were kids. Well, teenagers. Kind of funny how when you are a teenager you don't feel like a kid but once you're an adult you go no, teenagers are definitely kids." 

"Rey."

She was babbling. "I spent a lot of time at his house when we were in high school." It was better than hanging around where she lived with her foster parent, if such an awful person could be termed as such. "We got jobs at the same place. We went to the same college, we lived together, until he and Rose got their place last fall -- he's just… always been there."

" _Oh._ " Something had clicked for him, and she glanced over at him. His teasing expression had disappeared, and he was regarding her… well, it wasn't pity, exactly. Pity-tinged understanding, maybe, and it grated only a little. "You're in love with him." 

Normally, if someone accused her of being in love with her best friend -- and they had, to their faces, sometimes repeatedly -- Rey could usually laugh. Sometimes she and Finn would laugh about it together, until tears streaked down their cheeks and their stomachs hurt. But right now, she's too keyed up to feel any amusement and his certainty is just flat out irritating. So it's with a lot of bewilderment that she finally managed to utter, "Excuse me?" at him.

"It's not uncommon, and you don't have anything to feel bad about," he continued, when all she wanted was for him to shut up. "Probably knows everything about you, from your best to your worst and still likes you? That's attractive, it's hard not to like that about someone." He sounded as though, despite his anti-marriage stance, he could concede that would be enough to be in love with someone. "And you don't say anything because you think you have time, or you don't want to lose the friendship. But now it's happening, he's marrying someone else, and you're either going to have to 'fess up or watch him marry her in silence."

It's sort of close but so far off base, and now Rey is mad at him as well as herself, and mad for thinking opening up to an almost perfect stranger was going to end in any way except frustration. "It's not like that at all," she finally spat out tremulously.

"Look," he started again, "I know we don't know each other--"

"That's right, we _don't_ know each other!" Rey burst off the bar stool as suddenly as the words flew out of her. "You don't know me, and you don't know Finn and me, and I was really an _idiot_ to think you were the one I should be talking to!"

She plunged her hand into her bag and found enough bills on the bar to cover her drink and a small tip. "Lose my number and _fuck off,_ " she snarled, and headed for the exit. 

\---

 _Well,_ Ben reflected, _that could have gone better._ It also could have been worse, and he could have ended up with the sticky remains of rum and coke thrown in his face. It wouldn't have been the first time, and probably wouldn't be the last.

Maybe he'd pushed too hard. The disappearing-and-reappearing bridesmaid had caught his eye at Poe's wedding, and his questions had only grown as the night wore on. He'd offered to share his Uber back to Brooklyn, once he discovered they were headed in the same general direction and she cursed the late-night surge pricing of a Saturday night. He was mostly curious about the rather large duffel bag she carried, which, use whatever stereotype you wanted about women not packing light, there was simply no reason for her to have something that big. It was New York, everyone carried bags, but not like this.

Despite that she'd accidentally left her overstuffed but admittedly well-organized planner on the floor of the car, and Ben's curiosity got the better of him. Flipping through is where he'd discovered that there were two weddings penciled in for that day -- _Poe and Kay wedding -- Deity_ and _Jess and Rajit wedding -- Brooklyn Winery_ \-- color-coded, naturally, with addresses and post-its of lists that looked like she was packing for summer camp. What else was he to conclude but she'd been juggling bridesmaid duties at two different weddings?

He'd pored over that planner for most of Sunday, fascinated by all these puzzle pieces that he wasn't quite sure how to put together. But he knew he wanted to try. His editor was always telling him human interest was what people wanted out of their section of the paper. Something to ooh or aah over or feel good about. He wasn't sure if this was something to feel good about, but it was interesting. 

Returning the planner had been simple. Finding excuses to talk to her were a little more complicated, and now he'd fucked it up. Par for the course, really.

Although…

He pulled out his phone and sent a text to Poe. He didn't text him with any regularity, it was mostly so Poe could either send him memes to ruin his day or give him shit for liking the Yankees and he was pretty sure it was his mother's fault Poe had his number in the first place. But, waste not.

_You know Rey Johnson?_

It takes him a few minutes to respond, but from there the replies are rapid.

**_Hello to you too Benjamin. Yes it was nice today even for being in the city. I'm not doing much, how about you?_ **

Ben rolled his eyes. _Are you going to answer me or not?_

_**Of course I know Rey Johnson asshole she was just in my wedding. What about her?** _

_What's her deal?_

_**What do you mean what's her deal?** _

_You know what never mind_

_**Why do you want to know her deal Benji**_  
👀  
**_Are you hitting it off? Are you stalking her? Should I tell Kaydel???_** __

_You should definitely not tell Kaydel._

_**Kaydel is intrigued**_ 👀👀👀

_Bitch what did I just say?_

_**What do you want to know?  
Oh wait Kay says not to get in the middle of it** _

_So you listen to her? Where has she been all these years?_

_**Haha jerk.  
Were you mean to her?** _

_Maybe?_

_**M A Y B E ????** _

_I don't know. She yelled at me and left._

_**Left??? Where the fuck are you???** _

_Stop abusing the question marks and answer my question._

_**Kay wants to know what you said to her.** _

_Do you just want to make this a group chat?_

_**Like you wouldn't immediately mute a group chat.  
What did you say to her?** _

_Is she in love with Finn?  
… are you still there?_

_**1 min Kay is laughing  
She says no.** _

He's sorry he ever opened this message. _Okay, thanks._

_**Benji tell me you didn't say that to her face  
You cannot get a girl to fuck you by asking if she's in love with someone else  
Kay also says to stop being a chicken shit and talk to her yourself  
Ben???  
BENJI GET BACK HERE** _

Confirmation he'd probably fucked up was expected, and fine. But his story, this nebulous thing that he was still circling and figuring out how to attack or what he might be able to squeeze out of it, was still brewing and not a total loss yet. Back to the drawing board.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm @landwarsinasia at Twitter if you want to follow me.


End file.
